Fort Snelling State Park — Attraction in Mendota Heights

It's a pretty unimpressive state park. It's something that I always frequent here and there due to it being an option to get outside when in the cities for a weekend, but it's lacking anything I'd define as being "nice" for a state park. There's a swimming beach that's better than nothing I guess. A boat landing that isn't maintained, wouldn't be much better if it was, and doesn't offer an option for night fishing since the park closes at 10pm. This doesn't seem necessary since there's no camping. Why not leave the park open all night? There's a staffed employee that patrols the park after hours, so why not put in a couple lights along the paths up to the boat ramp at least and give the public access to it? Why not make Ft. Snelling the only 24 hour state park? There aren't any campers for a late night park user to disturb. It's right next to the airport so it's never truly dark....the entire park is already lit up to where if people wanted to walk through the woods at night, why not let them? Not everyone works M-F from 9-5, why limit their access to the public land and natural resources they share ownership of? Those people could benefit from getting outside too. There's someone paid to patrol it already, for what? To try to keep out the couple occasional people trying to sneak in? Why?

Put in a few street lights, upgrade the landing, open the gates without closing them again, and let the people...

I have to say, I've been a Fort Snelling State Park goer for more than a decade. Its sad to see the park turn into such an unfriendly place. The Park Rangers are constantly harassing visitors for parking and looking at the deer and turkeys. The park is in generally poor shape, unplowed and barricaded parking lots and trees that have been marked for removal for years, but never get cut down. My wife and I are retired and were in the park on Sunday, a week ago. We were told to roll down our window by a uniformed conservation officer who said that we needed to move from the parking lot because it was considered littering to feed the wildlife...WE WEREN'T FEEDING THE WILDLIFE. Apparently at FSSP its illegal to simply look at the deer and the birds from a parked vehicle. We love nature, but after all of these years of daily drives through the park to see the deer from our car, we are realizing that we aren't welcome anymore. I don't know if the staff has changed in the last two years, but, the park is no longer welcoming, its a park for cross country skiers and that's all. If you go to see nature...expect to...

This is a nice State Park. The park is nice, I went there to take a long walk. The parks would get 5 stars but the walking paths are very beat up, unlevel and pretty dangerous to walk on. I expect this on dirt trails but the blacktop sidewalks and roads are in really bad shape here. I would not let it keep you away, but be aware if you have a tendency to turn an ankle or aren't as prepared for terrain and are looking for smoother hiking trails.

This park is unique in that it is located right next to the airport, and the park extends under the Mendota Bridge, so you definitely get to see some different types of things than at most state parks. It is also built at the junction of the Mississippi and the Minnesota rivers, so there is a lot of wildlife and interesting landscapes to see.

The fact that it is built in a very historically relevant place also makes it a great place to take your children to highlight some of their educational activities. Make sure that you prepare yourself for helping them learn by researching the Dakota conflict and other relevant...